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Thursday, 15 November 2012

The Great British Pizza Company Margate, a ramble and a few pictures

I first discovered the pizza when I lived in London in the
1960s, at that time pizzas in England were rare and for me at least The Amalfi
Restaurant in Soho a useful discovery.

Here in Thanet I often eat pizza in The Osteria Posillipo
Pizzeria in Broadstairs, so I was interested to try Margate’s Great British
Pizza Company.

For me the important thing about lunchtime is a good balance
of price, quality and speed, my days off are mostly spent book buying and with
children to be collected from school it’s a short day.

Obviously after one of our councillors had said on the
BBC that this restaurant should be boycotted on socio-political grounds I was
very keen to try it.

For me Margate’s Great British Pizza Company pulled it
off on all counts, pizza £7

The picture of my lunch I know will annoy another
councillor, who has already complained about me putting photos of my lunch on
this blog.

With one TIG and one Conservative isn’t it about time
one of the Labour lot commented on food in fanet, one can only hope.

I did manage a quick sketch, not while I was
waiting for the pizza as it came very quickly, sorry I didn’t have time for a
watercolour, perhaps next time.

Margate is still having its ups and downs, while the effect
of the Turner Contemporary is now creeping up the lower High Street, with more
of the empty shop buildings returning to use.

At the top of the High Street the greengrocer has
closed, on the whole though I think Margate is improving.

A few more pictures which should expand if clicked on, not
so many as there would be if I was using my big camera, but I am trying to
master the camera on my mobile phone at the moment.

The plan is that this will eventually be a seamless
illustrated blog post using only my phone and a folding blue tooth keyboard,
eventually.

I have pretty much achieved all of this apart from being
able to position where the pictures appear.

The most useful aspect of using the mobile phone camera it
that the pictures from it automatically load to my the internet when I go into
a wifi hot spot, this means I don’t have to wait for them to upload. The down
side of this is the picture file names don’t relate to what the pictures are
of, so they wouldn’t be easy to find with a search engine.

There has been some sort of altercation between the the local police and the animal rights protesters, it appears the protesters had been in a car crash and the police turned up and issued them with a notice not to protest at the scene of the accident.
here is the video, I don't however know the details.

John, it was Chris Wells and he complained in a comment on this blog, something along the lines of the frivolity of my posting pictures of my lunch when I eat out in the area. My days off are mostly spent buying book stock for my shop, and in between this there is a considerable need for sit downs, with a cup of tea and or light lunch.

I only post about the better experiences doing this as I think the recommendations will save others time and money. The Great British Pizza Company is a real find for me, pot of tea at £1, reasonable view, pleasant atmosphere and people.

Don I would say that this is now probably the best bet café/restaurant wise when visiting the Turner. It also looks easy to do with a mobility scooter, although I forgot to visit the loo and see if it was large enough for disabled users, so I would recommend using the one in the gallery before going there, just in case it isn’t.

One good thing, of course, is that this establishment is guaranteed to be a Driver-free Zone. Pizza looks more like the real thing I used to eat in Italy, rather than the rather uniform and curious American version that we are normally palmed off with.

Until around 5 years ago there were at least 3 greengrocers in Margate, now there's none... and that's the big problem with the so called "Turner Effect", it tends to be cafes, galleries and over-priced junk shops rather than regular day to day things (unless people eat pizza instead of fruit every day that is).

Peter I think the problem really relates to finding some way of paying increasing shop overheads when sales are decreasing. I would think the greatest profit is in selling prepared food and drink, with the difference between the ingredients cost and selling price of a cup of tea being the most extreme example.

I welcome the protest against animal exports. However, some of the professional protesters, the kind that turn up at every and any demonstration, are obnoxious. I thought the police handled the car incident well. I wonder which the protesters dislike more, the animal exporters or the police.

How do you know that these were professional protesters? An ex civil servant like you should know better than to make assumptions. The site of the crash looks like the new road to the west of Cliffsend so they could have been locals on their way from, say, Minster. The increasing use of Section 14 to kettle the small number of protesters is looking more and more heavy-handed - remember that our police do so with our consent. To anonymous above I would also point out that there were two "twerps" with cameras, and given the corruption allegations brought today against five Kent police officers, as well as the industrial lying that went on after Hillsborough I would say that a member of the public had every right to film things for his own protection.

You are right to assert that civil servants, ex or otherwise, should not make assumptions. But this does not preclude them from reaching conclusions. You proffer the explanation that these people were locals on their way from Minister. If this were the case then how do explain that several of them were readily equipped with video cameras? Your reaction and words convince me that these were indeed professional protesters and that you are presumably one of them.

So to your way of thinking anyone who is protesting in the port and is not local cannot have a view on this matter and is a "professional"? Anyone who has a mobile phone with video capability is a "professional"? You say that you support the protests but presumably only if the protesters have a CT11 postcode and don't take a camera with them.

This video has appeared elsewhere on the Twittersphere so I've done a bit of investigating - it's all there on Twitter if you look.. You are right in your assumption that they are not local - they are from Suffolk (Ipswich ring any bells?) The camera was obviously to shoot their own corroborative footage - you'll see why later. They object to the live export of animals for slaughter - as I said earlier, in the context of the port of Ramsgate is such an objection limited to the non-camera-owning residents of that town?

I'll end this comment with a Facebook posting from Gerard Banes. Gerard is a local (Ramsgate) vegan (cue uneducated, ill-informed hate comments) and a local drugs councillor. He has attended these protests from the beginning and has always stayed within the law. I'll let his words speak for him.

"Just to let you all know after last truck had gone through the Port today I was leaving designated area to leave protest altogether and gather placards but was grabbed by 2 police officers. Arrested, taken to Margate Police station, police did not know way so directed them. Spent 5 hours in custody. Photographed; dna swabs taken; fingers, hands and palm prints taken. Interviewed after 3.5 hours in custody. Gave "no comment" all 15 mins of it. Returned to cell. Released at 3pm charged with failure to comply with sec 14 to stay in designated area for duration of protest and allegedly protesting outside designated area. Court date Thurs 20-12-12 @ 9:30am. Thanks for everyone's support today.Interestingly, custody seargent (sic) was going to bail me to ban me from Port but because of no pre-existing offences declined. I was given clear impression that police strategy is looking to arrest, charge and arrest and charge again so as to then apply bail conditions to ban protesters from Port. Freedom to protest is being systematically eroded by Kent Constabulary. We must keep up protests. Right is on our side." So obviously he would have done better to leave the placards where they were, littering the ground.

Gerard works for the good guys, trying to get people off drugs and hence out of a life of crime. John, you say that you support the protesters - well get down there and protest; not just about the export business but also about the tactics that the police are using in our name.

You say, "So to your way of thinking anyone who is protesting in the port and is not local cannot have a view on this matter and is a "professional"? Anyone who has a mobile phone with video capability is a "professional"? You say that you support the protests but presumably only if the protesters have a CT11 postcode and don't take a camera with them."

This is nonsense. I implied nothing of the sort.

Clearly, you a nurse a strong resentment against the police and have a axe to grind. I suggest that you take it up with the IPCC (www.ipcc.gov.uk/). Or maybe your solicitor can aid you. At the risk of being frank, I am not the slightest bit concerned about your dealings with the police.

You ask me if Ipswich rings any bells for me - nudge nudge, wink wink. No it doesn't, at least not in the context of demonstrations or the police. If you think that you know me then tell me your name.

I am rather tickled by the little spat above. I always had John down as the diplomatic voice of reason but our anonymous friend above didn't need to do much to send him over the edge. I got the Ipswich bit straight away - it was the port the Jolene went to when Ramsgate shut the doors. These people were probably protesters from that period.I suppose the point of shouting at the lorries is not so much to scare the drivers or shame them into stopping. If no-one turned up then our politicians would think that no-one cared, stop their efforts to halt the trade and move on to something else.

Section 14 of the Public Order Act does seem a little heavy-handed and I certainly have serious reservations about the way police forces deal with demonstrations. Kent police have been criticised for their handling of the Kingsnorth protests so they have previous in this matter.

When I lived in London I would from time to time join in and march with the protesters just to find out what was going on. Without exception there was always a group whose primary purpose was to start a spat, no not a spat it was not petty, rather a fight with the police. My most memorable occasion was the anti Iraq War march. Which I left at the top of Whitehall when the fires started. The police did not start the fires.

I always try to take a reasoned and balanced view. I do not need to be reminded that most protesters are sincere and peaceful. Similarly I do not need to be told that some are not.

If anyone would like to hear some informed comments from the police then I recommend Inspector Gadget at http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/. This blog is always worth a look and a comment.

John. I agree. My protest antecedents go back to Grosvenor Square 1968 so I too have some form in this area. See my comments ref the PCC - the police do so because we say they can. The protest is only a handy medium for these people - if it did not exist then they would just revert to scrapping outside the pub or on the terraces. I wonder if this is not a happy hunting ground for the Diversity Champion - peaceful protesters as a minority!

I am quite sure that this is a happy hunting ground for the Diversity Champion.

In 1968 I was still in the RAF, just. So going on a protest March would have been against QRs. However, I did have a friend in the RAF who used go on CND marches. He explained that this was not out of any desire to ban the bomb; rather it was because he found it a good way to pick up girls.

Once we had 'Ban The Bomb' and 'Anti Vietnam War' Woodstock and the Hippies. But now we have 'diversity'. 'fings ain't what they used to be.

10:18 There were some RAF types who made it possible for you to enjoy the right to publish your views on this blogsite. Do not dismiss people simply because of their percieved age or background. Do we know how old you are or what you have done in life or, for that matter, does it in anyway effect your right to an opinion.

It would just be nice sometime if, when giving your opinion, you qualified your arguments a bit better. After all, how have old people damaged Thanet. Many of the real oldies worked on farms which is hardly damaging.

Also, before you dismiss me as another RAF pensioner, I did my call up in the army, Suez and all that.

Manston was a front line Battle Of Britain station. A battle fought by RAF pilots barely out of their teens. Some of them are alive today as old men. How does this fact fit your nebulous thesis that old folk have damaged Thanet?

But then I suspect that you are nothing more than an Internet troll. Or maybe you been frightened off the pavement by a would be Fangio Pensioner on a Mobility Scooter.

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The old pictures of Ramsgate shops should expand with a bit of clicking although some of the pictures are larger than others, so it w...

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